Professor Delbert Elliot conducted the study over an 8 year period in different neighborhoods of Denver and Chicago. The research showed that the rate of successful development for children in the best neighborhoods was 63 percent while the rate for children living in high poverty, disadvantaged neighborhoods was 52 percent.The study was part of a four part integrated study of the MacArthur Foundations Network on Successful Adolescent Development.
The study examined the combined effects of neighborhood, family, school and peer group. The study revealed that success in any of these areas buffered the kids from the negative effects of living in a bad neighborhood. The results would suggest that conditions in all four contexts would not all have to improve at once in order to make a difference in children’s lives.
For positive development, the family and the school are the two most critical contexts. But for issues of delinquent behavior, drug use and early sexual activity, the peer group is critical.
The family influence begins to falter around age 15 when the school and peer group gain importance. But because society has better early intervention techniques for parents, they can in turn pass this on to their children, especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
A key finding in the study was that parents in disadvantaged neighborhoods are doing a much better job of parenting. The quality of parenting was not linked to the type of neighborhood a family lived in.
Source: www.colorado.edu
